Bacon Brothers bring their 'forosoco' sound to Glenside

By David Kleinman

Thursday, April 25, 2013

If you could summarize the Bacon Brothers' sound in one word, it would have to be 'forosoco.'

"We just say, 'Well, it's kind of folk rock but with soul and country,' and so we came up with this name for us: forosoco. That's what we started playing, that's what we named our first record and that's what we still play," said Michael, the older brother.

Kevin and Michael have made up the singing-songwriting duo the Bacon Brothers for almost 20 years, but the boys are no strangers to the industry in their own regard.

From "Footloose" to "The Following," Kevin has been a major Hollywood star for more than three decades. Michael's roots are planted more deeply in music, writing scores for TV and film productions.

"I think one of the things that's great about playing music is that with live music, there's always a little bit of butterflies; there's a little bit of feeling of 'wow, here we go and we have to make it happen,'" Kevin said. "I know when Michael's in the studio, that's like what he lives for and when I'm on set, that's what it feels like for me."

With a nine-year age gap, Kevin and Michael were born-and-bred in the Philadelphia area with four other siblings. Calling from a tour stop in Oklahoma between sound check and a meet-and-greet, the two looked back on their fond memories of ringing in the new year at the Mummers Parade and having paid tribute to them on their sixth CD release.

"We did a recording session with the Mummers on one of our songs, 'New Year's Day,'" Michael recalled. "We did a videotape of it and a fundraising concert for them -- that was pretty memorable. Who knows how much money we actually made them but we pulled out all the stops and did what we could to do our part in helping the parade. We always went to the parade as kids and it seemed like it's a shame that the tradition's not going to carry on."

The Bacon Brothers don't let their popularity work against them. Michael knows his famous brother is an enticing draw to their performances, but aims to blow the drive-by fans away with a performance that rocks.

"We obviously get people who are curious to see what a movie star looks like in person," Michael said, "and I think over the years we've been pretty successful turning those people who might be skeptical. You can be a really well-known actor, you can be a competent rock 'n' roll musician, and I think we've been able to kind of turn that around. We never totally do, but we don't risk worrying about it too much."

With his soulful lyrics and singing skills with the Bacon Brothers over the last 17 years, Kevin has proven to the naysayers that his love of performing is more than a passing passion.

"One thing that keeps us playing is we continue to write," Kevin said. "I think that if you write songs, you definitely want to take them out and play them. There's something really exciting about taking them out and playing them for the first time. That's something really exciting to introducing that to a band and seeing what a band is going to do with that."

Their upcoming concert date at the Keswick Theatre is a return home for Kevin, who had an early start on the stage.

"Maybe 30 years ago, I opened for Tom Rush there and we had a bunch of guys who were backing him up -- some of them who are in our band now," he said. "I moved to New York and the circle of people I met when I was working with Rush became the circle of people I'm still working with, so it's fun to go back to that place we met all those years ago."

Though much has changed since starting out, the music has remained the same: 'forosoco.'

"It's a songwriting-driven band, a lot of harmonies," Kevin said. "Most of the instruments are sort of what you'd call retro, but they're not retro to us because we never stopped.

Hopefully people will get lots of different things from it -- not just one thing. It's awesome music and it's a lot of fun stuff."